Friday, September 5, 2008

Updating TV Schedules Live Now: Sprint Cup And Nationwide Series Racing On Sunday

With the race weekend rained-out Friday and Saturday in Richmond, NASCAR has moved both the Sprint Cup and the Nationwide Series races to Sunday.

The Cup race will be run at 1PM Eastern Time on ESPN live. We are checking on the pre-race programming schedules for ESPN, SPEED and ESPN2 for that day and will have updates shortly.

The Nationwide Series race will be run at 7PM Sunday on ESPN2. Normally, this series has a pre-race show but no support programming from SPEED.

Craftsman Truck Series schedule remains the same as the Trucks are at Gateway for a Saturday afternoon race.

We are sorting through all the email and the media coverage and will be posting new TV schedules for all the NASCAR programs shortly. Neither the ESPN or the SPEEDtv website had been changed to reflect the new schedules as of 8PM Friday.

Please feel free to offer your opinion of NASCAR's decision on this post. Some feel the TV equipment and all the Transporters should never have made the trip with the weather forecast well in advance that this rain event was going to happen on these days. What is your opinion?

(photo courtesy of Mike Serota/Getty Images)

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52 comments:

I was wondering about a comment they made in a nascar.com article about the NW race that it will be run at 7 after the sprint cup race and after the stands have been cleared?? Are they racing in front of an empty track??

do they do that for double headers? I had no idea...not being a stick & ball person...

Richmond always runs separate tickets. I gotta say it--they are usually exceptionally organized--it may sound crazy, but I bet they can pull it off. Whether they *ought* to or not is another question....you don't have to buy a NW ticket to get a Cup ticket like some tracks, but you have access to better seats & renewable packages that way. There *are*, believe it or not, a number of people, particularly locals, who go to the NW race & not the Cup. Sometimes you see companies with events there (where they're all wearing their company T shirts, etc.) Also, people who already have their tickets; they are reserved in certain sections, but those will be different seats than Cup.

Personally, I think I'd say all rules are off and not bother, but...this IS the ISC we're talking about, greed is their middle name....

As a veteran of hurricanes, tornadoes & grass fires - I'm pleased that NASCAR made the decision to put the race off till Sunday. The "locals" are gonna have enough problems without cars trying to get to a closed track & getting caught out on the highways in the event the storms cause tornadoes & flooding. The roads need to be kept clear for people who choose to move far inland & 1st responders.

As to some people saying that the trucks & equipment shouldn't have been put in place, well, those same people would have been screaming if Hanna fizzled or made a turn towards somewhere else and the race could have been run on time.So - they made the choice to go on with getting things in place. What else could the networks & NASCAR do?

"The Chevy Rock & Roll 400 Sprint Cup Series race is rescheduled for 1 p.m. ET Sunday, while the Emerson Radio 250 Nationwide Series event is slated for later in the evening at 7 p.m. Both races will be broadcast on TSN2."

September 5, 2008 8:11 PM--------Neither does he, JD - this is the same guy who said the meeting was about keeping the fans happy in a bad economy & all The Drivers came out of the meeting saying they were told to shut up (about the CoT, tires etc) & drive. LOL

you could probably empty in less than an hour. There are a lot of exits. Getting them far enough away to stage and then letting them *back* in--that would be the hard part. I'm guessing they have some kind of plan....if they every had to evacuate for a terrorist threat or something, I bet they've thought about this. BTW, in recent years the NW race population is about 50,000, but no doubt this will be less as people have to go to work in the AM.

I'm not sure why you don't understand about why they would need to clear the stands and let NW ticket holders in. If I've bought a ticket to the NW race for a certain seat, how else am I going to be able to use it? Particularly if the cup race is sold out?

It's not like it hasn't been done before. I remember a weekend in Dover that had the Busch race run early on Sunday morning before the cup race.

I hope that the Nielson numbers come back with a major increase over previous races. Maybe if there is such an increase, a message may get delivered by a source that ESPN, and NASCAR respect. Whatever they care, or don't care, about as far as racing is concerned, they do care about the number of "eyes" that are captured during a race.

I would sure like to see a return to 1:00 PM race starts for at least some of the schedule. I am sympathetic to the "left coast", and their seemingly second class citizen status as far as afternoon sporting events starting times. I can't imagine trying to get geared up, and in the mood for a 10:00 AM football game or race start.

Let the Pacific time zone races start at a reasonable time for the people that live in that zone. Let's just get the "right coast" races back to their historically most popular starting times. In addition to ESPN & NASCAR capturing more eyes, maybe tracks will also fill more seats????

That is why this is so different. It is the minor event after the Cup race. So if you have tickets to both you have to wait in line to leave, go outside and then scan your new ticket and then go back inside? That is going to be fun.

But like I said, what about the NW only ticket holders? Their right to the seat they bought their ticket for has to be protected. It's not like the only people who bought tickets to the NW race also have cup tickets. If I'm making my way up to Row 23 Seat whatever, I don't want to find Joe six-pack and his buddies camped there wanting to just hang out and watch the next race.

Well, I"m here, and it's already a mess. I kept calling the RIR number that was supposed to be updated, and it kept saying (even after the alleged 6 p.m. update) that the races were still on at the regular time. The only way we found out was a cop at a gate told us today was off around 6:30. Didn't find out until after 7 that the weekend had been pushed to Sunday.

We have ticket to both races, but can't stay for the NW. Too late - and I love the NW racing. More than Cup to be honest.

RVs are parked all over the tiny yards around here. Big wind, and it won't get pretty. Already all kinds of wrecks on Laburnum. Why didn't they call this when they knew Hannah was coming days ago?

I've been going to Richmond for nearly 10 years. Some years, both spring and fall, sometimes just one of them, but always did both races (haven't been in a couple years due to rising hotel prices...) It vacates remarkably fast, and that's without them really trying. And then you're all stuck in the traffic, lol. And the parking lot is not all paved, so that will be tricky and muddy.

Some fans 'hang out' but their numbers are not great. Most of them want to go to VL and watch all the photos, usually the die-hards. The SPEED set is outside the track. I've never seen a lot of drunks just hanging out.

But what I'm saying is, every stadium and arena in the US probably now has plans in place for situations that might arise--what if you had a bomb threat and had to vacate, search and let people back in? I'm just saying that I bet they have a plan (whether it will work or not...we shall see.) Another thing is, a lot of the inside workers are released with 10 laps to go to help with other things, they just wouldn't do that this time.

Personally, I think it's foolish and I wouldn't try. But like I said, ISC=greed.

First, the reason for emptying the stands is that not everyone that attends the Cup Race has a ticket for the NW Race. If you let non-paid Cup Race viewers to stay for free, how do you decide who sits in the seat the NW ticket holder holds? How do you justify to the NW ticket holder they had to pay and the Cup viewer doesn't? Hence you have to empty the stands, Kabish?

Now they could have the Cup Race ticket holders that have a NW Race immediately reenter after passing through the exit. Then allow the NW Race Only Ticket holders enter after, as all seats are assigned.

NASCAR really didn't have a choice in postponing the races. I don't think the tv ratings will improve since they are competing with both baseball and some football. I was also wondering if Speed will change the time of viewing the ARCA race on Sunday; maybe showing it on another day,like they do with replays of Sprint races. I wish they would replay the Nationwide races.

Boy, this is going to be a cluster ..... I hope someone will be taping the mass exodus so we TV viewers can watch the action. Where is everyone going to park if both series are running on the same day?

I read on another site that the bathroom situation there leaves alot to be desired. Post race drunks vs pre race drunks, otta be fun. Bring your Depends race fans.

@ Rockin Rich, I am glad the race is starting early, just like the good ol' days. I'm ready to race at 10am, because I'm a true blue fan, not a casual viewer.

@Glenc1, LVMS scans their tix, don't know if all SMI tracks do. At least Bruton is in the 21st century.

dot, they have lots of restrooms just outside the track area, and a lot inside--not an issue any more than any arena. Well, except the doors stick sometimes, lol, I almost got trapped in there once. *Outside* the track where everyone parks, yes, and it can be disgusting; I won't even go there, lol.

it doesn't surprise me that SMI is ahead in a technical way...I don't even think ISC's tickets have bar codes on them.

about the parking...while there are not a ton of people going to the NW race only, it will be something they'll have to plan. If you don't get there by noonish on a regular race day, you're out in the fairgrounds with a shuttle. The convention center parking I think you can get with a shuttle for $5, so if you don't care about the tailgating, it's not a big deal. But just *getting* the cars parked on a normal day is kinda nightmarish...especially after they added seats (there was talk of paving it all, don't think they ever did...). But this time hopefully the fans won't be as concerned about the tailgating since it's not a night race (people argue with the troopers trying to get more space for their little kingdoms...) Did you know you can rent your own porta-potty for about $100, lol? The stuff you learn...

Anyways, I know we've gotten a bit 'off track' from broadcasting...appreciate JD's indulgence. I do hope they show us some of the transition on TV. I have friends there but I don't know if they're staying for NW.

Doing what Nascar has proposed will be a logistical nightmare. Once, during a race at Michigan a number of years ago, they had to clear the stands because of severe weather. It seemed to take forever. With these events, what does one do about parking? Where do they park the people coming in for the Nationwide race, seeing as probably all the parking will be taken by the Cup ticket holders. This will be a nightmare for the local law enforcement, hoping they will be available seeing how these storms could reek havoc on the area and their services might be needed elsewhere.

Disney should be forced to air the Cup race on ABC whenever it runs. It is a slap in the face to NASCAR fans to have a WNBA "game" keeping the race from millions of viewers without cable. If it was a real sport, then maybe, but this is the WNBA. Come on....

First of all where are they going to go? I suspect that a good majority of the people watching the Cup race have nationwide tickets as well so it isn't as if the crowd will be actually leaving the track premesis.

Secondly, with that being established, people have a tendency to congregate near the entrance/exit so the first people out will have to be almost herded away from the exit/entrance in order to make room for the remaining crowd inside to exit as well.

wouldn't a NNS ticket-holder want to get to the track early - perhaps hours early to take in the flavor, buy souveniers and have a hot dog and a beer. With this scenario that seems impossible. Interesting.

haus, I think most will go to their cars--the parking lot will be chaos, but that's normal, lol. The shuttle people--I'm *assuming* (however dangerously...) that they are going to tell people to go to area X Y or Z. There are some places--the souvie trailers (outside the track if they're not already headed out...) and the vendor areas, the amplitheater, there are also the clubs--air conditioned, and they're only used for paid events so after the Cup race they may be available.

anon 10:30...These areas are all outside the ticketed area of the track, so if they really want to they can hang out there while they're waiting for the Cup people to exit.